Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts; Moundsville Prison in West Virginia; the entire city of New Orleans…featuring sixteen historic towns, buildings, and landmarks, Ghostland is an intriguing glimpse into some of the country's most haunted places. Far from merely retelling ghost stories, author Colin Dickey explores the truth—or lack thereof—behind each account, and how each spirit echoes elements of our collective psyche. While the stories often function as cautionary tales and reflections of the population's values and mores, Dickey pokes at the inconsistencies between actual history and legend (for instance, why, when there was a booming slave trade in Richmond, Virginia, are so many of its ghosts so markedly white?) to find the heart of each haunting—and what it says about us as a society.